☰

Part of the Liberty Fund Network
Liberty Fund
Econlib
Law & Liberty
Adam Smith Works

Online Library of Liberty
Titles
People
Collections

Online Library of Liberty The OLL is a curated collection of scholarly works that engage with vital questions of liberty.

Spanning the centuries from Hammurabi to Hume, and collecting material on topics from art and economics to law and political theory, the OLL provides you with a rich variety of texts to explore and consider.

Learn More

The Reading Room

The OLL blog explores the fascinating, vital, and often surprising texts and people that fill our library. Come talk in our library!

Explore...

Liberty Matters

The OLL brings people together to debate and discuss important texts and big ideas about liberty.

Explore...

Liberty Matters: A Forum for the Discussion of Ideas About Liberty Is there a Role for Monarchy in a Free Society (January/February 2023)

It may seem odd that the topic of monarchy has been chosen for this month’s Liberty Matters. Our stereotypical view of monarchy in the history of liberty is perhaps most often associated with the writings of someone like Sir Robert Filmer who argued that monarchical authority, no matter its origin, was “the only right and natural authority of a supreme father,” making monarchs responsible to Go...

Explore the OLL Collection: Images of Liberty and Power Blackstone on Consanguity and Descent

In William Blackstone's famous Commentaries on the Laws of England (1753), which were used to teach the law to many generations of British and American lawyers, there are two interesting illustrations. One shows a "table of consanguity" and the other a "table of descent". These were designed to help understand the complex ways in which ownership of land could be passed down from one generation ...

Explore the OLL Collection: Quotations About Liberty and Power Bastiat, the 1830 Revolution, and the Spilling of Wine not Blood (1830)

The young Frédéric Bastiat helped tip the balance in the garrison of the city of Bayonne during the 1830 Revolution. With a combination of his wit and charm, copious servings of the local red wine, and the singing of political songs by the liberal poet Béranger, he was able to persuade the officers of the garrison to support Louis Philippe and the constitutional monarchists: